A Batty Dream

 Earlier this week I had a very strange and inspiring dream.
Walking on the street where I grew up, I see that there is a tree in the front yard were there never was when I was growing up. From a distance, it looks like there are light orange glowing lanterns hanging from the tree. As I walk, I approach another tree and see that it's branches were also covered with several of these lanterns.
Then as I got closer I could see that they were not lanterns, but extremely large butterflies. With each step closer, I could see more detail. Eventually I stood under the tree and I could get a closer look at these creatures. There were several of these beautiful light orange creatures hanging from the tree. As I looked closer I could see that they had tiny bat bodies and wings of a Monarch butterfly, all hanging upside down from the branches. A few of these Batterflies took flight. It was an amazing sight. They were so graceful and beautiful. Their wingspan was impressive and so delicate. It was so magical. I was not afraid of them . I was in awe of these beautiful animals. How magical they seemed.

When I awoke and had time to reflect upon this dream, I felt it had strong spiritual significance. I did searches on dream interpretation and was left unsatisfied. I still want to find meaning for this dream that was so vivid and I think full of meaningful symbols.

After my dream, my mind was flooded with ideas for future art projects. Lanterns made of clay and maybe some of paper. Paintings and sculptures of trees with lanterns hanging. Paintings and prints of the butterfly-bats hanging and in flight. A clay bat with glass Monarch wings would be nice.
So many ideas so little time.
Today during February vacation week classes as The Worcester Art Museum, I taught a class with young people titled, "Things That Fly" and I created my first Batterfly. I made the bat body with rolled up dark grey fabric and string. I made the wings with two bent wire hangers covered with light orange crepe paper and then painted with black lines. It was a blast!

Maybe I should offer a class on creating art from dream imagery.